Author: Bill

As expected yesterday…… I wound up making 4 dives…. ( a morning boat and an afternoon boat- 2 dives each)…. I didn’t get back here until almost 6:00, so just barely had time to edit and post a whole gang of pictures before falling into bed for a couple of hours sleep. Thankfully, both boats were small loads. With smaller loads, I shoot less pictures…. less to edit, less to post….. you get the idea…. and besides…. smaller loads means more room on the boat (more ‘elbow room’) and it’s easier to keep track of who all you have taken pictures of, which just makes my day a lot more easier and enjoyable. When you put everybody in a mostly black wetsuit, fins and a mask, they all start looking a whole lot a like…… I know it’s not good business for the shop…… but I have to take my little comforts where I can. Back out on the North shore……a bit ‘sporty‘ out there today…. but not terrible. We got everybody out there, 2 dives and back safely and they all had a good time… so really can’t ask for much more. Another small boat tomorrow, so more diving. Just 2 dives a day for the rest of the week (as of right now)…… always subject to change. Neighbors stopped over when they got off of work. Andrea just got back on island after spending the last couple of weeks state side dealing with the death of her Dad. They sat and chatted and got caught up on what’s going on around here before heading back over to their place.

I know I have been a little absent on here…… but life happens here too…. we are happy, reasonably healthy and staying as busy as we want……. okay, maybe sometimes a little busier than we want….. but we like it~! So bear with me when I don’t get to this….. always a lot easier (and quicker) to drop a quick blurb on FB…… but prefer to keep in touch on here…….so I’ll do my best. Gonna leave it at this…… nothing note worthy to mention about the last 6 dives…… but lots of pictures for you~!

Good Night Y’all x x x x x x x x x x x x x Thankx for stopping in~!

Been a day or two since I have been on here…… Lots going on in our quiet little retired life here on the island. Saturday I was up way later than I cared for editing and uploading pictures from a busy day of diving. The last dive was the “JR” dive. Fairly decent turn out. Kinda sad that we didn’t have very many parents attend this time. I always enjoy watching the parents and their kids in the water…..also makes for some great pictures. We made the best out of it and everybody had a great time. The morning boat had several ‘new to me’ people on board and all seemed interested in photo’s. Those dives are fun as well. I don’t enjoy [as much] the occasions where divers are ‘too cool‘ to have their pictures taken or they’re PO’ed/Upset/jealous/whatever that you want to call it that you want to take their pictures even though they have their camera with them….. it happens. I want to grab them by the ears and shake them and tell them I am doing a job….. I honestly don’t care if your camera is bigger/nicer/smaller/cheaper/has more lights/filters or other stuff than mine does…. I really don’t. I know there will always be someone, who will have a much nicer camera than mine (and probably better at using it) than I am and have zero issues with that as well. I tell them early in my ‘spiel’ that there is no added charge or fee for the pictures I take. I think there is a small percentage that still don’t believe me, until they actually download their pictures……. I also get to see and read and hear about people who are thrilled with their pictures and that always makes up for any of the spoil sports I have to deal with. Plus I take immense pride when my other pictures (sharks, turtles, corals, etc. ) come out looking real good.  It’s a great retirement gig~!

Of course, last night was the Super Bowl and while I did not watch a lot of the noise leading up to it, I stayed sufficiently distracted enough that by the time the game came on – I didn’t get any writing done…… I think I did do a FB thing right before the game started, but that was about it. Game was (in my opinion) very unremarkable…… I think the Bengals gave it away there in the last 5 minutes….. I guess you probably have also heard all the ‘fuss’ about the half time show.  You probably have your opinion on it as well. I thought it was stupid, which falls nicely in line with the way the rest of the states is acting right now….. so I guess it was appropriate. All I know, is if I paid anywhere near the outrageous prices I heard about for tickets to that game and then had to sit through that mess….. I would not have been happy…… but that’s just me. Diving tomorrow… I think…. 2 dives minimum…. maybe 4. Yay~!

Good Night Y’all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thankx for stopping in~!

Up bright and early to get ready to head out to get my wind shield replaced. Wasn’t in the mood to make breakfast, so I nuked up a small egg, cheese and sausage biscuit and had it with a small glass of milk. Not the best thing I could have had, but it was hot and tasty and was at least ‘something’ down there so I could take my daily pile of pills.

My appointment yesterday with Doc went as well as I could hope for. She is really happy with everything she saw. She is even going to try and wean me off some of my BP pills…. (not all of them-yet) She said waiting for Medicare to kick in before I get my MRI is fine as she was having me get it done as an abundance of caution more than anything. (Yea!)  She checked me over, thumped, tapped, listen, felt, pushed and pulled and gave me a big ole thumbs up on overall condition. I expressed a worry about my weight, which continues to skyrocket. She said with my latest schedule, quitting smoking and dang near completely stopped drinking, I should turn it around and it should start coming off soon enough. Sure hope she knows what she is talking about. I already feel like I don’t eat enough to keep a bird alive……. guess we’ll see. I came back to the house and shared the news with my bride and hung out with her until it was time to take off back to mid-island for our Shops latest ‘Wine Pairing’. Small group this round, so a  little easier getting pictures and I even got home a few minutes earlier than usual, but by the time I got pictures edited and put in my gallery, it was already past my bed time (so no blog or FB last night)

Headed out early this morning while I left my Bride in bed sleeping. Again- mid-island to the local glass repair shop. My appointment was for 09:00…. I was there by 08:15, figuring [or better yet, hoping] to get in there early, thus getting away early. Uh…. that would be a big negatory there storm trooper…… You have 3 people in front of you….. couple of issues with that….1) you’ve only been open 15 minutes and 2)— I had a freaking appointment!! I told the young lady as politely as I could muster “really kinda useless to have an appointment then ain’t it”  ‘Oh, yeah….. you’re waiting here on your truck correct-? (yes)……then, as soon as they finish the car they are working on now- I’ll have them take yours in’.  I’m gonna shorten this up a bunch for you…… I should have been ‘out’ of there by 11:00…… they didn’t get my truck in until almost 11:30….. it just went down hill from there….. but I tell you kind readers….. this fat old man kept his cool. I wandered their parking lot for almost 7 hours. Yes…. 7 hours~! I did find 36 cents while doing it….. but I digress. I now have a new wind shield, it’s not supposed to leak…… well see~ Diving tomorrow- at least 3 dives~!! Yay~!

Good Night Y’all & & & & & & & & & & & & & & Thankx for stopping in~!

Vera—- warning:  LOTS of eel stuff halfway through pictures…….

P2090281 <—- EEL video

Up much earlier than I needed to be this a.m., but I wanted to be up to wake my Queen up for her day and be able to make her breakfast. I made her an egg and cheese sammich and got her on her way. We had not one, but two cruise ships in today and in anticipation of catching folks coming off of the ships that want to dive, our boat was out West today. As it turns out, we didn’t have any cruisers and a only small group of six for diving this morning. Cruise boat loads leave an hour later [to accommodate cruise ship hours] so I get an extra hour in the morning for getting my stuff ready and getting me fed. The sun was shining and it was a cool [to me] 76* as we headed out to our first dive site. My very favorite dive site…. Armageddon~! It did not disappoint….. only one very large shark and it wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. I thought for a while it might have been a pregnant female, but after a closer look– I think it was just a big ole male. I clicked, popped, grunted and rubbed and he didn’t even hardly look my way. Dammit Emmit. You’ll have them days every so often, so I moved on…. a couple of nice big French Angel Fish, one of the biggest Lobsters I have ever seen. The Lobster was big enough that I guess he was brave and came out and actually grabbed my camera. His antenna’s were laying on my head. Gotta love that kind of interaction. Tons of gorgeous corals. I’m tellin’ ya– that site is a photographers dream. Back on top— had some pineapple and chocolate chip cookies as we motored to our next dive site. Out here on the West end, we get an up close and personal look at the cruise ships as we go from one dive site to another…. big ole dudes…. wow.

Second dive was a nice slow relaxed dive. Halfway through it, we found one of my critters…. a Giant Green Moray Eel~! I love ‘Em~!! And this one was friendly. He actually came up and bumped my camera lens. I think he saw his reflection in my lens and was curious. I could have stayed there all day if I had enough air. I  finally left him and found the group for more pictures. A fun group, lots of photo-op’s…. just an all around really good day of diving.

Doc appointment tomorrow. I’m gonna see how bad she wants me to get that MRI. Hopefully she let’s me wait until 1 April when I go on Medicare. If not, it’s gonna cost me $1600.00. I have all but completely quit drinking and my belly feels much better, so we’ll see. I have another “wine boat” to shoot tomorrow afternoon. It’s usually around 9:00 [pm] before I get back from them things, so I wouldn’t look for anything on here tomorrow night.

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

IMG_4062 <— Moko Jumbie Dancing video

Up and at ’em bright and early this a.m. to ready for my morning of diving. Looks like the rain has finally cleared out for a little bit. Got everything loaded into my truck. That poor old thing. The floor boards have standing water in them because the truck leaks so bad…… especially during those driving rains. I’m hoping a new wind shield will stop at least some of that. I need to see how much of my ‘Bondo’ molding days that I remember. I used to be pretty durn good at rebuilding auto body parts that were crunched or just plain ole rotted away. The salt air here is awfully hard on everything. Throwed the floor mats into the bed of the truck to let them drain a bit and hopefully dry out a little bit. Everything loaded and away I went. Wind had swung around out of the North and picked up a mite….. maybe a little more than a mite….. it was down right sporty out there on the water. It was so sporty [[how sporty was it ??]] — that for the first time in my photography career here on the island…… I did not bail in for ‘in the water’ off the end of the boat exits. I have bobbed around out there in some pretty aggressive seas and came out relatively unscathed…. but something told me today, don’t do it. I don’t know if it is age, wisdom, gut instinct……. whatever it was, I listened to it. Pretty happy I did too. It was rough enough, that I did not let the Captain hand my my camera rig after I got in….. I took it with me, on both dives. This involves walking rapidly to the back of the boat, bending over far enough the camera goes into the water and then doing a somersault in with it. That way the camera does not take the impact of entry. Not a smooth or graceful entry, but it works. Safer for the Captain as well. I learned it watching another photographer last year, that did not trust the Captain to handle his camera [at all]. Under the water, it is so much calmer…. hard to believe sometimes…. unfortunately, with water that rough, the visibility tends to suffer most of the times, but we still managed 70′-80′ on both dives. Not great but not bad. Small group of divers made for a fairly quick day. I’m not complaining a bit. Back here, showered, pictures edited and posted by 3:30. I’ll take it.

Joining a large group of divers tomorrow for a mass underwater clean up of the Pier sponsored by a local band, doing it now for the third year in a row. There are normally 2-3 of these clean ups a year, but COVID crap has kept them all cancelled. Hopefully it doesn’t interfere with tomorrows efforts. I have no idea what section I am being assigned to- so I will not have my [big] camera with me, although I might drag my little GoPro with me. Not sure I know how to dive without a camera in my hands.  😉

Good Night Ya’ll + + + + + + + + + + + + +Thankx for stopping in~!

Actually slept in ever so slightly this morning… not being forced out of bed to answer Natures call until a tad after 07:00. That was nice. I snuck out of the bedroom leaving my Queen still in her slumber. After the bathroom stuff, opening the shutters and getting my lemon water, I settled in for the news on my laptop. Just about the time I finished the news up my Queen came stumbling out. Some coffee, some breakfast and some computer time for a nice relaxed start to our rainy Sunday. It didn’t rain hard, but off and on all day. Enough, I didn’t even look at the lawn to see if it needed mowed because it was just entirely to soggy to worry about even trying to touch it. AWwwweeee…. dang….. guess I’m just gonna have to sit on the couch and watch movies all day. That sounds worse than it is….. we only watched two movies. Both of them were sappy feel good movies that Angie likes. You know how the whole movie goes simply because they are that predictable, but she likes them…. so we watch them once in a while to help balance out our selections.

I initially thought I was gonna have a pretty slow week this coming week, but after looking at out schedule… guess it is gonna be a way busier week than most.  Tomorrow should be one small (easy) boat (2 dives per boat)….Tuesday I am participating in the Pier Clean Up organized by a local band. While I’ll only be in the water for an hour or so, the whole event is usually 2-3 hours and then we’re supposed to go out for dinner with the island kids that evening. Wednesday there is supposed to be 2 cruise ships in, which could mean 2 dives in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Thursday I have a doctors appointment in the morning and a Valentine’s Day ‘Cruise’ in the afternoon. Friday I am supposed to take the truck to get the wind shield replaced [again]……. if my new wind shield is not cracked [again]…. that will probably tie up that day and Saturday looks to be a two boat day for me with the the afternoon dive being a “JR” dive….. always a fun and challenging dive. So guess I better get good and rested where I can……. Good thing I’m retired….. I wouldn’t have time to do all this stuff if I wasn’t~!  😉

Good Night Y’all < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < Thankx for stopping in~!

Kinda of a weird Saturday here in our little island abode today. Instead of the usual attempt at sleeping in and a low slow casual kind of day – we were both up early. My Bride was once again helping out at Blues and while my dive wasn’t scheduled until 1:30 in the afternoon, I was supposed to be in at the shop at 08:30 for some learning. One of the requirements for Dive Master is to be EFR certified. I also had to have that certification for my Rescue Diver certification, which I had, but the EFR/CPR part of it expires after 2 years, so I had to get recertified. That’s what the training at the shop was about. I had already finished all of my on-line stuff and needed to demonstrate ‘hands on’ capabilities. Kinda scary to see how much of that stuff came back when it came time to apply it. I breezed through the class room stuff (written test and demonstrations). Guess I may have been a little bit to gung ho as I think I broke the ‘victim’. It has [had] an internal mechanism that would “click” to let you know you were compressing the chest far enough. It didn’t work to good when I was done. The Instructor said that I definitely was compressing far enough. I remember the last “victim” that I trained on was a lot harder to compress than this one.  Maybe it’s just my rock hard abs driving my muscle riddled shoulders down that made it seem easier…… LOL  😉    Even I couldn’t not laugh typing that. The weight of my gut pulling down on my shoulders is more like it. LOL   Anyhow……… I passed all the tests/exercises and the Instructor said I was done. I did a little running around afterward, to the dump and then the store for a couple of odds and ends.

The dive that was planned for the after noon was called off due to impending weather. It was not only a dive but was to be followed up with some wine drinking afterwards by the ladies on the dive. Apparently several places on the island cancelled their afternoon activities because of the threat. Happily/sadly….. nothing came. Skies were overcast and it drizzled quite a bit, but so far, that’s it. HOWEVER…. as I type this, the intensity if the rain is picking up and thunder is starting to roll…… so maybe it’s just slow getting here. Not supposed to be anything evil…… just heavy rains and maybe a little wind with it. We’ll be fine here in our little concrete bunker. Just hope we keep electricity and internet. We have watched a couple of movies today (we both got home about the same time and moved almost straight to the couch) First one was Journey 2 with Dwayne Johnson and the second one was one of those sappy love stories my bride likes. First one was entertaining…. stupid…. but entertaining….. the second one was… well….. Angie liked it so that’s all that matters  😉  All in all….. a pretty good day. Tomorrow, a day off for both of us…… yay~!

Good Night Y’all ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Thankx for stopping in~!

Another short commute for me this morning as the boat was still out on this end of the island after getting woke up and making breakfast for me and my Queen. Several people cancelled this morning and as it turns out we only had two guests on the boat for our dives this morning. I know it is not good for business to take out just 2 people…. but I really like being on the boat then. TONS of room and it makes it real easy for me to remember who all I took pictures of — LOL~!! As it turns out—we had two awesome dives~!! Visibility was good on both dives…. lots of critters…. 3 big turtles, a big ole gnarly Barracuda [even though I didn’t get a picture of him]… and an EAGLE RAY~!! (got pictures, but not what I call good pictures) a Green moray eel~!! Even though I couldn’t get pictures of him either….. he was tucked way in the bottom of a big coral mound….. Just 2 real good relaxed fun dives. I say relaxed….. I think I’m safe admitting— I used up about a quarter of a tank of air trying to catch up to that Eagle Ray. I was sucking air hard by the time I finally gave up and wound up having to come up to the boat about 10-15 minutes before anyone else. That hasn’t happened since I started diving….. but the things you have to do to get ‘that shot’~~~

Got back to the house just in time for the sky to open up and start pouring rain. We even had a little bit of thunder and lightening with it. I had to almost completely close the shutters to keep the rain out…… and it got cool enough I had to put my T-shirt on…. BRRRrrrr…. awe…right ?  😉  Got to spend well over an hour on the phone with a friend I haven’t heard from in quite some time…. Roland Hall – from the Atlanta Hall’s……  LOL. Good to hear from him as always. Have texted with most of my Daughters getting caught up on the weather back there…… yuck~! I still have to call Rachael…… today is her birthday.

No diving in the morning….. but I have some class room learning to do. Have to get my EFR training recertified. (Emergency First Responder / CPR training) I had to have it to get my Rescue Diver certification. It has to be current to get my Dive Master certification, so some school work for me. Then I have a Lady’s Day Dive & Sip tomorrow afternoon to shoot. Besides the Captain – I will be the only dude allowed on the boat. The Ladies will make a dive then come on board for some Wine, snacks and socializing. Should be quite the event. Then gonna take Sunday off and try and get a look to see what next week looks like.

Happy Birthday Rachael~!

Good Night Y’all – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thankx for stopping in~!

P2030052

Up bright this morning and early excited to go diving again….. after all… it had been almost 48 hours since I was underwater. Have to be careful, I might dry out if I stay out to long  😉  Little bit ‘sporty’ out on the sea today, but vis was decent and even though we had quite the diverse group today, nobody required a lot of tending to and both dives went nice and smooth. We got to see Sea Biscuit today, which is always a good dive. Love that dive site. Even when there are no big ‘critters’ to shoot, the corals around there just puts me in awe every time I dive there.

Apparently a big day for me tomorrow from what I am hearing. Tentatively, I have 3 different shoots. Some snorkeling pictures, some “beach” pictures and last but definitely not least…. Portraits of the staff. I’m pumped….. got to watch a couple of good video’s on my new camera and a couple of tutorials on “people pictures”… including tips for portraits. Should be interesting to say the very least and I am excited to be doing it. It should give me a good idea on my talent level out of the water. (It’s been a while~~)

Gonna leave it here because I need to get 5 cameras and 26 batteries charged and ready for tomorrow…….woo-hoo~!! Jeez, I’m starting to sound like a dork…..   😉  Not sure if I’ll get anything written here tomorrow night or not……

Good Night Y’all > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thankx for stopping in~!

P1270201 <— Video

Gray Angel Fish

Conch shell with a critter inside

Second month of the year already….. wowser…. this year ain’t wasting any time getting a move on. I did not get notice of a ship in or needing to be on the boat this morning…… so I lounged a bit staying in bed until almost 07:00. That was nice…. I strolled out of the bathroom and opened up the shutters only to see a ship sitting at the pier. The ships are big enough we can see the tops of them from here. I checked my phone and there was no messages from the shop….. so I went about my morning business. I’m good with an extra day off – especially since it looks like I’ll be working Saturday for a special event. I sat and had my lemon water and caught up on the news. About the time I was finishing up the news, my Bride came stumbling out. I started coffee and we sat quietly enjoying the cool morning and the relatively quiet of our neighborhood this morning. Kinda ironic that as I typed that – the cruise ship just sounded it’s [very loud] horns signaling their departure. According to my calendar, there is another ship due in tomorrow, but I have already been informed the dive boat will be back at Salt River and is scheduled with a full roster….. including me.  😉

Angie made us a delightful breakfast and I started working on a new [photo] gallery while she did dishes. I spent the next several hours on photography ‘stuff’, including learning some pretty neat stuff about my new camera. I will get a chance to put some of the new found information to use come Thursday, as I mentioned the other day. We will be doing an all day photo shoot for the dive shop…. including new portrait shots for the dive shop web site. I guess I need to dig up a couple of tutorials on taking portraits….. ought to be interesting~ We did manage to get in a movie while I was uploading a bunch of pictures onto a flash drive for the boss. For some reason her laptop won’t let her down load pictures from my gallery so she occasionally has me do a mega dump onto a flash drive. Thankfully I keep my files in good enough shape- that it is not hard to do- just time consuming. The movie this afternoon was called The Fundamentals of Caring, with Paul Rudd. I strongly recommend that one…. well acted, just an all around good movie. We watched one last night I don’t think I talked about… called Home Team with Kevin James….. based on a true story and another one I would highly recommend….. especially of you’re a New Orleans Saints fan.

Looks like I’m ‘working’ the next 4 days…. but should be able to get on here and ramble a little bit. Amanda has been sending me updates on expected weather there for the next day or so……. you all have fun with that~~~  😉

Good Night Y’all * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!